Mentoring a New Author

Firms that want to publish intellectual capital look around their pool of employees; if they find employees with experience, companies find ways to weave it into their publishing and knowledge management strategies. This excerpt from Publishing Intellectual Capital describes how mentoring can help get your firm's intellectual capital into print.

In many companies, publishing occurs when someone within the firm
with publishing experience is willing to help others write and publish. It is
rare. On the other hand, firms that want to publish intellectual capital look
around their pool of employees; if they find employees with experience,
companies find ways to weave it into their publishing and knowledge management
strategies.

Mentoring typically develops in one of two ways: by accident or by design. As
publishing becomes increasingly popular in businesses, those who have quietly
been writing over the years are asked by others interested in publishing to
answer questions, even to critique manuscripts, and are recruited to help place
items with editors. Those firms that want to use mentoring as a process,
however, approach the issue very differently.

The first step is to designate an individual in the corporation with
responsibility for promoting publications by employees. The second step is to
identify who in the firm already is publishing and is willing to help others,
then to put in place whatever incentives are necessary to encourage the
experienced to assist others. The incentives could range from setting aside time
from their own work to help others, time to write more, travel budget to go to
different parts of the organization to meet with would-be authors. That person
could also run writing and publishing seminars within the firm. Then, management
should reward, celebrate, and recognize the efforts.

What does a mentor do? The challenge for a mentor is to expose a would-be
author to the tasks of writing and publishing while simultaneously passing on
necessary skills and sustaining the neophyte's enthusiasm for the work
until it is published. Most would-be authors know somethingthey are
experts on a subjectbut know little or nothing about writing. Sending them
off to an English class at the local community college is not practical. You
will have to help them start putting words on paper, showing them how to
organize their thinking, maybe even coauthoring pieces with them so they see the
process at work. They have to go through this drill about three times before
they know enough to dispense with a mentor. Using a ghost writer can be very
helpful. The mission is to teach skills and to further tacit knowledge, not to
transfer facts.

Would-be writers all seem to ask the same questionsthe issues the book
you are reading is aboutand therefore the mentor fields many telephone
calls, spends countless hours in staff meetings and "over lunch"
gatherings, answering and promoting and encouraging people to try writing. To a
large extent, mentors are cheerleaders urging people to write and then bursting
with pride when their prot__s publish. As momentum builds, that is, as people
hear about the existence of someone in the firm who is willing to mentor, many
will come forward. The problem for the mentor is which people to invest in. Many
want to publish, few actually do. As a mentor, you will simply have to practice
a sort of literary triage to determine who to invest in. As in medical triage,
you separate people into categories: those who are wasting your time, those who
might get some work done, and those who have the potential and determination to
publish. You will spend time with all three groups, but you want to focus more
on the third because those people become the basis for an expanded pool of
mentors in later years. In a business environment, there is also a fourth pool
that cannot be ignored, those whom you must help for political reasons. These
could include your manager, who sees a way to publish by riding on the shoulders
of a writing employee, those whom you are ordered to get into print, and so
forth. That fourth group is usually small; you can handle them deftly by just
writing a piece and listing the person as coauthor. Or, simply throw a ghost
writer at the project and manage that effort as any other business
initiative.

Mentors should, however, bring potential authors into research and writing
projects when the other parties have something to contribute, such as expert
knowledge. It is a wonderful way to write oneself and train others without
skipping a beat. Mentors are in a better position, for example, to conceive of a
major projecta book-length collection of chapters by multiple
authorsas a vehicle for training a half-dozen or more people at the same
time. Mentors themselves should continue writing and publishing, sharing their
experiences while doing this, so others can see by example. Knowing and watching
an author is inspirational because observing takes much of the mystery out of
writing and publishing. Lifting the veil of the unknown, exposing the mystery of
writing, may be the single most important act of a mentor. Once people know what
the mentor knows, many will conclude that they, too, can write and publish, that
they, too, have something at least as important to say as that individual.

At the nuts-and-bolts level, mentors often tell people exactly what to do,
read and correct their various drafts, may call editors to place material or
coach authors on how to do that, then celebrate these accomplishments. Mentors
will get telephone calls on Saturday afternoon, will have to set aside time on
Sunday afternoons and while on airplane rides to read manuscripts, and have to
tell people very diplomatically how to improve their literary babies. Most of
the material will be of very poor quality, often not suitable for publication.
The mentor's challenge is to deliver that message without discouraging the
would-be writer or to show an individual how to invigorate the material to make
it publishable. To get closer to the latter positions, mentors should focus on
several kinds of tasks:

Force would-be authors to outline and to understand what the key messages
are and for what audience

Force would-be authors to write and polish, write and polish, then
polish, polish, and polish

Force would-be authors to show their material to other experts, then fix
and polish

Don't let would-be authors treat the material as if it were an extension
of themselves. Be cold-blooded about the content and quality of the material
from the first contact. Would-be authors need to have the detachment of a third
party, like a forensic pathologist doing an autopsy on their creation. The
mentor must teach them this task.

As the process of mentoring develops, it will become clear who is going to
write and publish and who is simply talking a good game. Winners are those who
have something to write about and invest the time to put their thoughts
on paper. Spend a great deal of time with those people because they will deliver
results. I define results in this case as publications sitting on my bookshelf.
Read their papers, really work them over to show how they can be improved and
polished. Personally introduce your winners to editors, engaging them in the
process of selling their material to a publisher. Once they have had a taste of
success, push them to do more. More in this case means additional
articles, sometimes with multiple writing projects going on simultaneously, and
then, ultimately, a book. Set expectations for additional performance from your
stars and cheer them on, reinforcing their confidence. These activities are very
much what a good professor in graduate school does with a star pupil writing a
doctoral dissertation. You see the same kind of behavior in a skilled craftsman
teaching an apprentice, a carpenter bringing a would-be colleague along. It is
showing, correcting, congratulating, and doing more of the same, and forcing a
prot_ to do as the mentor does until the skill is mastered. Mentoring frequently
involves a multiyear relationship with an individual, cutting across jobs and
career changes. There is no other wayit just takes time to train new
writers and to get them published.

Momentum creates its own opportunities. For example, editors constantly
solicit experienced authors to write articles and books. Somehow, good writers
wind up in the Rolodex files of many editors, including in those of journals and
publishers they have never worked with before! If busy, the good author normally
declines the invitation. A busy mentor might say to the editor, "I
don't have the time," or "I am not as qualified to do this work
you want," but then adds the phrase, "but I know someone who is
qualified and does have the time. And I'll work with her to make sure the
manuscript meets with your satisfaction." Then, you talk the would-be
author into taking on the assignment, with you as mentor to make sure it gets
done right.

Over time, your relations with authors change. As they gain confidence,
experience, and enjoy publishing successes, they will need less nuts-and-bolts
help than before. Like peers, they will seek out your advice on messages and
content and less on writing and publishing. It is then that you have to teach
them to mentor others in the firm, bringing those others along the way you did
them. Otherwise, your phonemail will remain clogged with messages from
wanna-be's. It is in your self-interest as a mentor to expand the pool of
like-minded mentors. This is particularly true in very large corporations, such
as at my IBM, where a lot of really skilled people with lots of energy and
ambition want help getting published. The same circumstance exists at such other
firms as Philips, Citicorp, AT&T, General Motors, Mobil Oil, and so many
others. In the companies just mentioned, employees have not hesitated to call me
for mentoring. So, if the word gets out, a good mentor may be asked to help
others in other companies! Recruit additional mentors!

A Case Study: A Factory Unto Himself

James Martin is one of the most prolific authors in American
business history. In 1996, he published his 100th book, Cybercorp. All
his books have been on business topics, in fact, all on various aspects of
information processing. Some have been technical books for IT professionals,
others for business management, and some for folks like you and me.

James Martin began writing books on computing while an employee at IBM in
the 1960s. His early books on database management and telecommunications became
instant classics. He later published books on programming methodologies and
application development. The company supported his work and eventually, after
nearly two decades at the firm, he went out on his own. He continued to write
books and eventually started his own consulting firm. Life has been good for
James Martin.

But what made him a successful author that his publisher, IBM when he was
there, and now the man himself can take pride in, was his burning desire to
write and publish. He proved willing to do it within the realities of working
within a corporation, in terms that made sense to the reading professional, and
later in support of his consulting practice. The moral of his experience is that
authors can be highly successful both out on their own or as part of a corporate
structure. Employers, an industry, and publishers can all benefit from having a
James Martin working with them.

Author vs. the U.S. First Amendment

In the United States, the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution guarantees citizens freedom of speech against political
suppression. Lawyers will tell you that First Amendment issues are between
citizens and their government. Authors, however, feel it is always an issue
between them and anybody who might want to constrain their
expressiongovernments, religions, or corporationsand thus sometimes
are at odds with their employers, talking at one level while the lawyers are on
a different point. Authors have a tradition of cherishing the First Amendment,
and so it becomes the source of contention when some organization attempts to
constrain (authors say, censor) their ability to express themselves. The problem
is not absent from the business environment.

The Key Issues:

Ability to express one's opinions on any issue without fear of
censorship or recrimination by the organization one works for

Ability to write and speak on any topic

When This Right Creates Tensions:

The firm might be harmed by revelation of sensitive or competitive
information.

The firm feels it must control what its employees say and write outside
the firm.

The firm is in danger of being exposed to criminal or civil suits or to
competitive attack.

The firm attempts to retain possession of its intellectual
capital.

How Firms and Authors Deal with the Issues:

The firm defines clearly what its publishing policies are and gains
commitment of employees to adhere to them.

The author uses common sense, understanding that it is not always in
everyone's interests to give away intellectual capital, embarrass the firm,
or reinforce competition.

Authors and companies discuss potential publications, coming to an
understanding on a case-by-case basis on what and how things should be
published.